Perfect Night
by Stride
Summary: After witnessing the vicious murder of his family, Stride Slywhin the hedgehog loses his home, friends...even his his sanity... (Please R&R)
1. Perfect Night

(This is the first of three fanfic stories that I've written about my character, Stride. This is my first one, so please be kind, oh, and do give me some comments and constructive criticism as well, thank you and enjoy!)  
  
Perfect Night  
  
I had a family, and we took care of each other. I had a wife named Julia, she had looks to die for, and a temper to match. My son, Jacob, was a real card...Just like his old man, he always tried to help me bring in firewood, he didn't get much done, but hey, he tried, right? Last, was my little girl, Kirstin, she was sweetest thing in the world; she talked a lot, and was very stand offish sometimes, that was her though, but although she was adopted, she fit right in.  
  
Thats my...er...was my family. Because one day, my endless nightmare started. The week my life was ruined, there had been frequent visits from these strange wolf fellas, they constantly looked around the village for something, and I was constantly being eyed by em'. We didn't find out what they were looking for until later...  
  
You see, they were checking to see who in the village might hinder their plan, *sigh* as it turns out, I was the only one strong enough to do anything, and in the game they were playing, numbers always win. You could just tell something was wrong that night, it was too quiet. That, and the fact that there were three wolves staring in my window didn't bode well either.  
  
I reached under my cot and grabbed my brass knuckles, never thought I was going to have to use these again. It was gonna be a long night...I woke up my family and rushed them to the back of the house. I left them with one of my new self defense inventions...It was called pepper spray; it generally scalded the victim with acid.  
  
Thinking they were able to defend themselves, I rushed outside, only to get jumped on by three of those idiot wolf men. Of course, they didn't know who I was...That made things much easier. I easily picked two up by their necks and slammed them into the ground. The third went into a fighting stance, huh, he wasn't going down easy I see...good. The jerk tried to punch me in the face, I easily moved out of the way and gave him a special of my own, I punched his face in with a quick jab to the nose.  
  
Three down...330 more to go. I was able to keep fighting for a while...I think I was at number 127 before they finally stopped me, or should I say, "he" stopped me. The creep showed up behind me just as I had polished off another soldier, when I turned around, I was met with a powerful energy blast to the chest, so powerful, that it knocked me out for a while.  
  
I had a wonderful dream that night, my entire family and I had built our dream house out on the beach...It was great, we had agreed to live on the beach once we got enough money. Reality, however, had different plans. There he was, grinning his toothy grin at me...with...He had my family! He was gonna kill them all in front of me! I begged him to take me instead, that I would serve them for the rest of my life, as long as they spared my family...It was a no go...Wait...was I seeing this correctly? The rest of the men were hiding in their houses! Watching the wolves burn down everything!  
  
Watching in fear as my family...was...slaughtered, torn limb from limb, right in front of my eyes...The cowards saw it all, and never made a move...They slaughtered all of my family...except...one...My daughter somehow escaped...good, at least one of them got away. The wolf grinned at me; he said that if I ever wanted to get revenge, that I should go someplace called SVT City...  
  
They let me go, but I didn't care, I simply stared at the remains of my family, I don't know how long I stared, it felt like forever though...I must've dozed off...Another dream...Not as pretty though...He killed them over and over again...I heard their screams over and over...My son begging me to stop them...For once in my life, I broke a promise...I swore to defend my wife, son and daughter, that I would protect them...I failed...I later woke up chained to two trees.  
  
I was on trial...The cowards said that I failed to defend my village...The cowards said that I failed...The only one that was fighting...The only one who ever tried to defend out village!  
  
*Destroy them.*  
  
What? I could never-  
  
*Do it!*  
  
Who are you?! Why are you in my head!?  
  
*I'm here to do what you never could...*  
  
What's that?  
  
*To destroy the cowards.*  
  
While that short exchange went on in my head, I missed the part where the cowards decided to exile me from the village. I missed the part where my daughter said "I" to the vote of kicking me out of the village forever. As I walked out, they all threw rocks at me and shunned me...My daughter included...I left without a word...  
  
*If you don't do it...I'll do it for you.*  
  
Who are you?!  
  
*Call me the Void* 


	2. The Void

The Void  
Completed: July 14th, 2003  
(Disclaimer: Armageddon is not my character, neither is SVT City my  
creation, all credit goes to their respectable creators. That is all.)  
  
(Three days after the incident, Stride was forced to move into a small village a few miles from his old one. It was a terrible place, as there were several cruel rich aristocrats that ran the town, however, as if in response, their were also several small assassin guilds...there was no middle class, only the rich and the poor...Stride was one of the poor, living in a small shack just on the edge of the village. While he was there, Stride did nothing but train his muscles and go to the church, only to beg God to release him from this world...)  
  
The Cowards...Correct...That's why I exist, to eliminate the cowards and the wolf soldiers...Correct...I exist to eliminate the cowards, wolf soldiers and anything else I want...Stride still thinks he has complete control...good. While he sleeps, I'm able to do as I please, I can control all of his movements...However, I want to control more then that...I want...My own body...  
  
10:15 P.M. Day 5 of existence.  
  
It took him longer to go to sleep this time...That's okay...I'll be free soon enough. A couple of days ago, I joined an assassin guild...Meaning they pay me to kill...It's a wonderful deal for me, terrible for my victims...It looks like they have another job for me too! Let's see here...I laughed in glee as I found out the mission. Kill the wealthy aristocrat names Jacob T. Burton...Poor sucker...It says its only worth one thousand, but I say its going to be worth much more...  
  
11:03 P.M. Day 6 of existence.  
  
It wasn't hard to find out where the aristocrat lived...You simply walk into the middle of town, look at the line of mansions, then, ask someone nicely which one happened to belong to a guy named Jacob T. Burton...Good times for all.I snuck around the side of the mansion, I didn't feel like taking out the guards on the front of the house...I felt like picking on this one, guarding the side of the mansion.He didn't even see me coming...  
  
I jammed his head into that wall so hard that it looked a horse trampled his face! This was already fun! 10 more guards ran out of the mansion to find out what that loud noise was. So I did what any good assassin would do, I stood there and waited for them to come at me.  
  
The fools, they never stood a chance...I easily knocked out four of them with a rushing clothesline...The other six stopped dead in their tracks...Ha, seeing my display of power made them reconsider their plan of action...But that was until they unsheathed their swords and rushed me...You'd be surprised at how excellent a weapon to unconscious guards can make...I picked up the two of the four that I had knocked out earlier by the collar, one for each hand.One by one, they hacked and slashed at me, and one by one, I blocked their attacks, and crushed them under their fallen comrade's body weight...I gotta say...They really disappointed me. After my little game was finished, I casually walked into Jacobs's mansion...  
  
The little jerk was no where to be seen! Oh...wait...that is...until he walked out of the Master Bedroom, shouting at me, telling me I had no business being in his home...He had guts...But was very stupid, what if I was an assassin or something.he also was right though...I shouldn't have been there...So I lowered my head in shame, and walked out...then later walked back in with six of the dead guards bodies, stacked on top of each other...I calmly walked into his bedroom, and I smothered him with his own guards...I hate stupid people...With my job finished I returned Stride back to his pitiful shack...I was going to be free soon...  
  
10:57 P.M. Day 7 of existence  
  
Ha ha ha.Payday...That job bagged me one thousand dollars...So that gave me a grand total of $3,001,000. Oh, I did mention that my victim was a wealthy aristocrat, didn't I? Who said that I couldn't raid his house afterwards?  
  
I knew what I was searching for, I knew what I wanted it for...And now, I finally had enough money to find it...I was searching for an artifact, some types of magic...anything that could finally free me, and give me my own body...Ha, tonight was definitely a good one, so I think I'll call it a night...Tomorrow, I have much to take care of.  
  
9:00 P.M. Day 8 of existence  
  
Lucky! He went to sleep at 9:00, giving me more time to search...I've found that knowledge and money is power...So I walked to the local library, money in hand, and bought the entire magic and relic section from the owner.it only cost me about $800,000... That night, I went through and searched each and every one of those myth's, relics, magic books, and otherwise...Out of the hundreds of books...I found three mystical forces that caught my eye...  
  
The first were actually weapons, known as the Twin Soul Swords, it read that the wielder of that sword would gain the powers to perform miracles, however, it also said that the wielder had to be pure of heart...Ha ha ha, I guess I don't exactly fall under that category...  
  
The next was a mythical creature, known as Armageddon, it was said that he actually created his children using different precious jewels...However, there were two problems with this...Number 1, The beast is located half way across the world...Near "SVT city", I've heard that somewhere before...Oh well, its not an issue right now...Number 2, it doesn't say anything about him helping out angry manifestations of someone's mind.  
  
But the third one...That was the one, according to the passage, there was a legendary liquid, it said that it was an extremely metamorphic liquid, capable of responding to the wielders very thoughts...Of course, that was after you went through mind crushing pain trying to absorb it all into your body...It was called Dark Echo. Dark Echo...Suddenly, mind crushing pain doesn't sound so bad when you consider the positive side...Freedom...As I turned the page, a crude map revealed itself, a large arrow pointing to Stride's old home. Under the arrow, were a few words...Ec...ho...Lake...Echo Lake, huh? That must be where it is kept, I assume that the path to Echo Lake is hidden under one of the villager's houses, well then, its time for some renovations...  
  
9:36 P.M. Day 9 of existence  
  
I didn't have much time...I had to make several preparations for this job...First, I had to get a wagon, and 4 horses...Ha, that didn't take long at all, you wave $200,000 dollars around, and suddenly, everyone is offering you their horses and wagons...I bought the sturdiest ones I could find, then rode off to the local shop...  
  
I bought the all of their most expensive dynamite and gun powder, $500,000 worth to be exact, my preparations were complete, and it was only 11:36! I was making great time! I loaded up my wagon and pushed those horses as hard as I could, two of them had heart attacks...but not before I made it to Stride's village within the hour...  
  
I snuck around the village planting the explosives everywhere; I even strapped a stick of dynamite to a cat...It was 2:00 A.M. when I got finished...I happily lit the fuse, and walked out of the village, I don't think I've ever been so happy in my life.  
  
10:04 P.M. Day 10 of existence  
  
I left Stride in the destroyed village that day, just to see his reaction...It was exactly what I thought it would be...That sentimental fool stumbled around crying, wailing, trying to find out what could've happened to his precious cowards...This probably wouldn't have been funny to me, if he hadn't been doing this for the entire day...Not even asking how he got there...And by the end of today...He'll never know...  
  
I finished my first job, and got one step closer to my goal.Get revenge on the cowards and now, all I have to do is find the path to Echo Lake, and since all of those pesky buildings aren't in my way, I'll be free to dig up the path with no trouble, or interruption from anyone...I dug for several hours, quickly getting desperate, it was already 3:02 A.M. and I only had one more burnt down house to check...  
  
As I dug through the burnt down house, I finally found something, all of the other houses had brick flooring, so why did this one have wood, painted like bricks in it? I laughed in glee, realizing that I was almost free...I punched into the ground several times, slowly making progress, watching the floor crumble at my feet.revealing.A staircase, going deep into the earth...I had made it...This was it...  
  
As I walk down the stairs, the stench of death attacked my nose...This was definitely the place, as I finally got to the bottom of the stairs, I was in a long corridor, stopped abruptly by a brick wall, looking to my right, I saw it, a small river of dark blue liquid running along side the cat walk...however, there was something in there that was not encouraging at all, a twisted body, torn apart by the dark echo...This was what happened, if your body wasn't strong enough...Well, its time to see if Stride was.  
  
The moment I stepped into the liquid, my mind felt like it was being torn apart, it felt like all my bones were snapping in two, it felt like all of my organs had been ripped out of my chest.but I never moved... I worked too hard to be denied.I stayed in that Dark Echo, I took the pain, until I passed out...  
  
The second I opened my eyes, I felt different, I felt stronger...faster.I felt like me...As I sat up and looked around, I saw him.There was Stride...laying next to me...A broken body...I had done it...As I looked down at my new body, I noticed that it was a deep dark blue, and vaguely transparent...I had grown spikes made out of dark echo all over my back, and, I was much larger then Stride...ha ha ha.  
  
When Stride finally woke up, I stared down at him...Ha ha ha, he was so small from here, he kept asking me questions, like, where was he, and who was I, all of that. In response, I grabbed him by his face, and slammed him into the ground...Ha ha ha, good times for all...His already sore body just went limp as he hit the ground. As I saw his body fall to the ground, two thoughts jumped into my head, infection...or absorption.I knew what they both meant, and I could do either...  
  
I could either infect him with the Dark Echo, making him my slave...Or I could absorb him, making me infinitely stronger...I chose to absorb him, to my amazement, five tentacles had already extended from my hand, and slowly started to drain Stride of everything, his life...his strength...and unfortunately, his thoughts... As he slowly died, I became stronger, but at the same time, his thoughts slowly began to control my mind.I slowly faded back into unconsciousness, as I did, I changed my form into a somewhat larger Stride, believing that I was now him...  
  
All that was left of my mind were my two most important attributes...murder, and revenge...When I finally woke up, Stride's carcass was no where to be seen, only adding to the illusion that I was Stride...As I stood, the vicious murder of his family filled my head, it was all I could think about...And so, I set off, with only two thoughts in my mind...Revenge...and SVT City... 


End file.
